


Workplace Hazard (Also Known As 'The Boss')

by RedWritingHood



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU
Genre: Bruce Wayne's shark smile, Bruce is either the best boss, Bruce's employees are not stupid, Character Study, Gen, Lydia is frequently enraged, or the worst, possibly both
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-18
Updated: 2017-12-18
Packaged: 2019-02-16 12:40:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13054191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedWritingHood/pseuds/RedWritingHood
Summary: Working for Bruce Wayne isn't easy. His employees can attest to that. Particularly Lydia, and, boy, does she.(The thing is, Wayne's board members loath him with a passion.That's it. There's no 'and' or 'but'. They loath him.)





	Workplace Hazard (Also Known As 'The Boss')

Lydia Parton's life used to be simple. She was steady, determined and ambitious. It's how she came to work for Wayne Enterprises.

Wayne Enterprises is one of the most prominent industries in Gotham. Wayne himself is a leading figurehead in Gotham's high society, dumbfoundingly popular with those rich and illustrious enough to rub elbows with the man himself.

'Brucie' Wayne. A mindless millionaire-- _or is that billionaire, now_?-- playboy, only slightly making up for his waste of space with his philanthropic persuits.

When she first came face to face with Wayne, her only concerns were that he would be stupid enough to dismiss her potential or that he would be one of those men who only see a skirt and a pair of heels instead of a business associate.

When she looks back now, she can only think, ' _Oh, Lydia, if you only knew_.'

Wayne hadn't even glanced at her legs as he offered his hand and smiled.

God. That smile. Not too big and not too small, with a hint of perfect white teeth. A shark's smile. And above that, blue eyes, pretty-- like light shining off a blade. Or a wolf on his own turf.

He still smiles at her like that sometimes, and something inside her shrivels whenever he does. He probably _knows_ what his murdery fish grin does to her, the bastard-- killing her soul a little at a time. He probably enjoys it, too.

Lydia's life used to be simple. Until she met goddamn Bruce ' _Shark_ ' Wayne. Shark Bruce. Wayne Shark. Wark--

_Focus, Lydia. Don't let the presence of his mind-numbing Brucie persona dumb you down, too._

"Let me introduce you to one of my board members," Wayne is saying. "This is Lydia Parton. She handles my share in...oh...India, was it?"

"Asia," Lydia says. She takes care not to grit her teeth and keep smiling. Is she smiling? She hopes so. Her lips feel more like they're lifted in a fixed baring of teeth and homicidal intent.

Wayne waves away her comment. "Close enough."

Lydia's eye twitches. She blinks.

Terrence Furlough-- not particularly distinguished but rich enough to contribute to a good portion of WE's charities-- slides her a glance. His eyes keep sliding, down to her chest, then past her waist, to her legs, then back up. He smirks and holds out his hand. "A pleasure." He thinks he knows how Lydia got her position, and it wasn't from hard work-- well, not the kind that involves wearing clothes, at least.

 _Ha_. Lydia would sooner sleep with an actual fish than get in Wayne's pants.

Lydia keeps her smile/homicidal grimace in place and shakes his hand. His grip is too warm and overly tight. Lydia is tempted to break his thumb, but she is a professional. She pulls her hand back.

Wayne steps forward in clear dismissal, and Lydia shifts into the background. Wayne and Furlough chat, and she can actually see Wayne ticking Furlough off his list of possible contributors.

When did she become so proficient in Wayne-Speak? Is she...becoming like him?

She suppresses a shudder. _God, no. What a horrible thought_.

Furlough departs. She knows that expression. He's thinking about how astoundingly stupid Wayne is.

Wayne catches her eye and gives her that shark-smile. Lydia hears a nearby woman say on an admiring sigh, "He's so pretty."

Lydia's brain actually shorts out for a moment before rebooting.

Wayne's expression is carefully, stupidly vapid, but she can see the amusement lurking behind the mask. He plucks a snack off a passing tray and holds it out to her. "Cheesecake fudge brownie?"

Lydia stares at him.

Wayne has disrupted her life. He's infuriating, and hardly ever comes in to work, and when he does come in he's got some terrible excuse about vacationing in the Bahamas or something, but even when he's not there somehow his work still gets done, and he's got an unnatural shark child who's so much like him it's creepy and she despairs for humanity when she thinks about it, and his children are all unnatural and more like him than they probably want to admit, and she once got taken hostage by the Riddler and Batman came to rescue her and asked her, "Are you hurt?" in that idiotic growly tone of his, and she has never, ever, not once doubted that he would save her--

\--and--

\--and--

\--and _damn_ the man, she wouldn't take back her old, simple-- and, compared to this, _boring_ \-- life if she could.

She takes the damn cheesecake fudge brownie and shoves it into his mouth. She hopes he chokes on it.  


* * *

 

 

The thing is, Wayne's board members loath him with a passion.

That's it. There's no 'and' or 'but'. They loath him.

Sometimes they get coffee together and talk about how much they want to strangle him. But (okay, so  _maybe_ there's a ' _but_ ') even-- or perhaps  _especially_ \-- when he enrages them, they are utterly, sort of madly, somewhat spitefully loyal to him.

"Damn Wayne," Lydia says, "and damn his shark genes. Why don't we just take all the money LexCorp's offered us like actual ruthless businesspeople while we're still sane?"

"Because he's Wayne," says board member Geofrey Guld, whose mother did not recall how many F's were supposed to be in 'Geoffrey', and so only used one just to be safe.

"And it's too late for that, anyway," adds other board member Rourke Askgaar.

"Besides." Myra Dragsteel pours some more sweet tea into her glass. "We've never been quitters. And...Lex Luthor."

"I suspect the casualty rates outweigh the health benefits," Geofrey puts in.

And, a bit morbidly, they toast to that.

**Author's Note:**

> Lydia is indeed an original character, but I imagine her as that woman with the black hair and dark skin in that scene from the Son of Batman movie, where Bruce is walking down the hall of Wayne Enterprises and there are, like, a dozen people trying to talk to him, including her. She doesn't show up again, but that part inspired this story.


End file.
